Time for You to Get a Watch...

"Mrs. Owen what time is it?" "Time for you to get a watch!" Apparently I've got a little too much of my Uncle's humor in my bones and my kids are paying attention. I'm up to three of my soon to be second graders that have begged their parents for a watch so that they can tell the time. . .at all times of the day. Granted they're digital watches, but hey, you gotta start somewhere! It's one of the cutest things ever to hear them telling each other what time it is and how proud of themselves they are. It's enough to make my heart melt over and over again. Speaking of hearts, my heart broke a little more today while I was editing the class pages for the yearbook and discovered that one of the pieces of my heart moved and I didn't get to say goodbye. Every teacher out there knows that most of your kids take a piece of your heart when they move on to the next teacher (or school). With that said, every teacher out there also knows that there are some students that take a larger share than others. It's rare that boys in the type of neighborhood where my little ones live wear their hearts on their sleeves past the middle of second grade. That's what made K so special. While all of the others are now too cool for school and our daily hugs have now turned into "daps" and "wassups" K kept it real with a heart felt hug every day. He has a heart of gold and that sets him worlds apart from other kids his age.Of course I love all of my babies, but there are very few that I would take in as one of my own if there ever came a reason for that to happen. I can only hope that the next teacher who is lucky enough to have him on his/her roster realizes his potential and pushes him to achieve the greatness that he is capable of reaching. Now that I've got that off  of my chest (and before I boo hoo like the emotional baby that I am), I'll move it along to lighter topics.

Today in math we reviewed telling time to the hour and half hour. Dinosaurs were our theme and telling time was our mission. We reviewed and practiced, and reviewed and practiced, and reviewed and practiced, and reviewed and practiced some more. I was sure that they FINALLY understood it (and for most of them the light bulb turned on and stayed on). For a few it flickered and immediately shut off when they had to do it independently. One day before day 180 they will get this, today just wasn't the day. We read Edwina the Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She was Extinct (that I blogged briefly about yesterday) and we played a partner match game "Dinosaur Roar" (included in my Wild About Math pack). Each student got a card that either had a digital or analog time printed on it. They had to find their match in the classroom and record their time on the recording sheet (draw it and write it). Of course they loved it. . who doesn't love getting to sit with their BFFs while they're doing work?? I mean that's why I love teacher work days! :)
 What came next was supposed to be a craft. . .but with the paper towels over flowing the trash can at 10:00 in the morning I wasn't stoked to let the billy goats out of the cage to leave shreds of paper everywhere. Sooooo we resorted to illustrating and I'll tell you the results were just as adorable (if not more)! Our math lesson in a picture nutshell is up and to the right. It's absolutely freezing outside and I'm starving so until next time live, love, teach! :)